Mojacar Cricket Club opened their league season with a narrow defeat by visitors Madrid on Saturday 5th May 2007. Winning the toss, Madrid sent Mojacar into bat. Mojacar openers Finch (13) and Parfitt (77) made a steady start at three runs per over for the first ten overs.

Finch fell early to some sharp bowling from Khan (8-0-33-4), Beal (77) taking up the mantel in a second wicket stand worth over 100 runs. With both Beal and Parfitt making half centuries, Mojacar looked in fine shape coming into the last third of the innings, however two quick wickets brought two fresh batsmen to the crease. Run rate faltered as wickets fell, Mojacar finishing on 207 for 6, when a much better total seemed likely.

Madrid batting looked fragile from the outset with none of the top four batsmen reaching double figures with Stannard taking two outstanding catches from mistimed hooks to backward square leg.

Although Mojacar were missing two of their main strike bowlers, tight bowling from Parfitt (9-2-21-0), J Rose (9-3-17-3) and Beal (9-0-33-1), with Finch chipping in with two wickets, kept Madrid well short of the required run rate up to the middle part of their innings.

Madrid Skipper Fernandez (31) then arrived determined to bring the innings back on line, and together with Khan (23) and Woodward (31no) the Madrid innings came alive. Indiscipline with bowling became Mojacar´s undoing. With 46 wides bowled, extras became by far the highest scorer for Madrid and ultimately saw them pass the finishing post with eight balls and two wickets to spare.

Madrid were fortunate in this encounter, the return match will undoubtedly see a return to full strength for Mojacar and a far more disciplined bowling attack. Mojacars next match is against Albox Cavaliers on Saturday 19th May at La Manga

Mojacar won the toss and elected to bat on the La Manga artificial surface, on a sunny day in which strong cross winds made bowling more challenging. Mojacar were missing two of their regular bowlers and Madrid were experimenting with their batting line up to cope with the challenge of keeping players fresh during a double-header weekend.

Madrid’s accurate and penetrating opening bowling restricted Mojacar to under 3 runs an over in the opening spell and concluded with the loss of opener Peter Finch caught by David Leonida off the bowling of Irshad Khan.

Key Mojacar batsmen Ben Parfitt and captain Phil Beal were both fortunate to survive being dropped twice in their 20’s before going on to both making important half centuries (both made 77) though at a very slow pace, controlled by some accurate bowling by Nadeem Alvi and Manny Fernandez, which was ultimately to cost Mojacar any chance of victory against Madrid.

Beal and Parfitt pushed on towards the end of the Mojacar innings, raising the run rate to just over 4 an over, but once Parfitt was completely beaten and stumped out facing the leg spin of Muhammad Akmal, Mojacar struggled to accelerate further.

The return of opening bowler Irshad Khan (4-33) then finished off the Mojacar innings as he first ripped through the defense of Phil Beal clattering his middle stump before running riot through the Mojacar middle order with fellow opener Rob Hatch (1-40).

Mojacar finished their innings on 207-6.

Mojacar started their defense of the total poorly, with opening bowlers Phil Beal and Jeremy Rose spraying the ball around the crease, with more than half of the 30 runs in the first ten overs coming from wides.

Madrid’s experimental top order batting struggled to settle against the wayward bowling and some frustrated swings at poor deliveries and a bizarre run out left Madrid at 78-4 after 24 overs, some ten runs behind the asking rate.

Madrid’s middle order batting then took control of the game, with solid and rapid knocks from David Leonida (23) and captain Manny Fernandez (31) taking Madrid into the lead, before an outstanding 29 from Irshad Khan off 12 balls (including four huge 6’s) took the game beyond Mojacar’s reach.

Mojacar’s bowlers battled during this period to restrict the run-rate with only Jeremy Rose (2-17) in his second session and Ben Parfitt (0-21) providing any real control with some very accurate line and length.

Jonathan Woodward (31*) then batted with the tail to take Madrid past Mojacar’s total with almost 2 overs to spare, the final runs being gifted to Madrid by Mojacar through 2 wides, to take the extras tally to just shy of 60 runs.

The game will also be remembered for two significant umpiring decisions – first the wicket of David Leonida on the 7th ball of Keith Rose’s second over followed by the (scorer over-ruled) wicket of Manny Fernandez on the first ball of Ben Parfitt in what would have been his over-quota tenth over. Both decisions were accepted / resolved in the best spirit of the game and thankfully were not crucial to the result.